Fortes-Lima, Cesar A ORCID: 0000-0002-9310-5009, Burgarella, Concetta, Hammarén, Rickard ORCID: 0000-0001-9017-591X, Eriksson, Anders ORCID: 0000-0003-3436-3726, Vicente, Mário, Jolly, Cecile, Semo, Armando, Gunnink, Hilde ORCID: 0000-0002-5508-8156, Pacchiarotti, Sara ORCID: 0000-0003-1360-5060, Mundeke, Leon et al (show 20 more authors)
(2024)
The genetic legacy of the expansion of Bantu-speaking peoples in Africa.
Nature, 625 (7995).
pp. 540-547.
Text
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Abstract
The expansion of people speaking Bantu languages is the most dramatic demographic event in Late Holocene Africa and fundamentally reshaped the linguistic, cultural and biological landscape of the continent<sup>1-7</sup>. With a comprehensive genomic dataset, including newly generated data of modern-day and ancient DNA from previously unsampled regions in Africa, we contribute insights into this expansion that started 6,000-4,000 years ago in western Africa. We genotyped 1,763 participants, including 1,526 Bantu speakers from 147 populations across 14 African countries, and generated whole-genome sequences from 12 Late Iron Age individuals<sup>8</sup>. We show that genetic diversity amongst Bantu-speaking populations declines with distance from western Africa, with current-day Zambia and the Democratic Republic of Congo as possible crossroads of interaction. Using spatially explicit methods<sup>9</sup> and correlating genetic, linguistic and geographical data, we provide cross-disciplinary support for a serial-founder migration model. We further show that Bantu speakers received significant gene flow from local groups in regions they expanded into. Our genetic dataset provides an exhaustive modern-day African comparative dataset for ancient DNA studies<sup>10</sup> and will be important to a wide range of disciplines from science and humanities, as well as to the medical sector studying human genetic variation and health in African and African-descendant populations.
Item Type: | Article |
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Uncontrolled Keywords: | Humans, Language, Genetics, Population, Emigration and Immigration, Founder Effect, History, Ancient, Linguistics, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Zambia, Africa, Western, Gene Flow, Genetic Variation, Geographic Mapping, Datasets as Topic, DNA, Ancient |
Divisions: | Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences > School of Histories, Languages and Cultures |
Depositing User: | Symplectic Admin |
Date Deposited: | 19 Jan 2024 15:43 |
Last Modified: | 02 Feb 2024 09:34 |
DOI: | 10.1038/s41586-023-06770-6 |
Related URLs: | |
URI: | https://livrepository.liverpool.ac.uk/id/eprint/3177918 |